MUST BE and CAN'T BE

Learn English with Dan

Improve your English today at ANGLOPOD.COM. Hi everyone, I’m Dan and today we’re going to learn about the modal verb expressions MUST BE and CAN’T BE in English. We use them to discuss probability, how sure we feel about something. Let’s find out more…

Imagine you are trying to solve a crime, like a detective. Think of Sherlock Holmes or even Batman! A detective needs to find clues, evidence, information to help them understand what happened. When the detective is sure what happened, they might say “He MUST BE guilty!” This means they are 100 percent sure or very close to 100 percent.

However, another way to show how sure they feel is to use CAN’T BE, so for example “He CAN’T BE innocent!” As ‘innocent’ is the opposite of ‘guilty’ both phrases mean the same. “He MUST BE guilty” and “He CAN’T BE innocent”. I am 100 percent sure! In that case, “He MUST BE guilty” and “He CAN’T BE guilty” mean the opposite.

If you’re not sure, you could say “He MIGHT BE guilty” or “He MAY BE guilty”. The modal verbs MIGHT and MAY express possibility, not probability, and so you’re saying that you are not sure. You are only 50 percent sure.

So what are you sure about? What do you think MUST BE true or CAN’T BE true, based on what you know? English CAN’T BE the hardest language to learn, right? There MUST BE other languages that are harder? Go to ANGLOPOD.COM and tell us in the comments. See you soon!

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